PARIS, March 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. Justice Department confessed to Israeli espionage activities inside the United States and confirmed the arrest of one network suspected of involvement in the deadly September 11 attacks on the United States, a French magazine reported Monday, March 4.

Intelligence Online said Israeli spies have been under investigation since April 2001, and still are. Some of them stayed in the same U.S. cities where Information Technology (IT) experts, suspected of planning the September 11 attacks, have stayed.

The specialized magazine’s editorial manager, Geoume Daskieh, asserted the net comprised about 20 cells, each of which includes four to eight members, 22 to 30 years of age.

“Those spies performed their military service with an intelligence unit of the Israeli Army,” Daskieh told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “They introduce themselves as Plastic Arts students.”

“That network wanted to access the systems of U.S. Defense and Justice Departments. It wanted to get in through anti-drug bureau, because this way they could have had an access to the files of other Departments,” he added.

The French magazine asserted that the espionage network targeted the most sensitive U.S. installations, such as Tinker Airbase, affiliated to the U.S. Air Force, near Oklahoma City.

“Justice Department investigations showed that some 10 Israeli agents, among them the one in charge of bugging in the net, lived in Hollywood, where 10 persons, suspected to have been assigned to prepare for Sept. 11 attacks, were detained,” said Daskieh.

“It is still a possibility. Investigators could not yet determine whether the Israeli spies were told about the attacks beforehand or not,” he added.

Around 100 IT experts, suspected of being behind the attacks, were detained after September 11.

The French magazine said it received a report prepared by Task Force Committee, which is affiliated to the U.S. Justice Department. The report confirmed the U.S. authorities have detained or expelled around 120 Israelis in the context of that same espionage case which is still being handled in an extremely discreet manner.